All Good Things
by Upggrade
Summary: Jack knows what happens when you get too much of a good thing.


For the three months since the war, Shepard and Jack have been staying on Illium. As much as they like the apartment on the Citadel, they get recognized and mobbed far too much. They still get recognized on Illium but privacy law is the one thing that's strictly enforced there so it's bearable.

As Shepard wakes up, he realizes that there's no bundle of warmth wrapped tightly around him like usual. He frowns as he sits up. Her nightmares have been getting less frequent and less intense but the kinds of things haunting her will never truly go away. It's rare, but she still sometimes bugs out badly enough that she goes to the other room and curls up under the desk like she did when she was a kid. He hates when this happens, because there's nothing he can do.

Neither of them are strangers to nightmares but given the unerring deadliness of their instincts and reflexes, they know they need to deal with them carefully to avoid accidentally killing each other.

When it's Jack having one, Shepard doesn't dare touch her. Being restrained is a common part of her nightmares so he has to make sure she wakes up completely free. Watching her suffer, unable to do anything about it in the moment kills him but she reassures him that his presence afterward is exactly what she needs.

When it's Shepards turn, she doesn't dare try to move. All his nightmares center on losing her, so when his arms squeeze her like a life preserver in the North Atlantic, she simply squeezes right back. When she can, she positions herself so her face is the first thing he'll see upon waking, looking into her eyes never fails to calm him down.

He heads into the other room, intending to sit down and be there when she wakes up, but he finds she's not there. In fact, she's not home at all. Puzzled, he calls her. No answer. He shrugs, not worried. When she doesn't want to talk, she doesn't talk. Whatever it is that's going on, they'll settle it later. When he goes all day without hearing from her, he finally starts worrying.

The next day, he gets a call from Aria, who gets right to the point.

"Why is your girlfriend threatening my bartender?"

Rather than express his confusion, he just sighs.

"I'm on my way."

It takes him a day to get out there and Aria doesn't know where she took off to. He charts a course to the next closest bar and his instincts prove correct, the bartender reports that she indeed messed the place up before moving on. On his way to the next bar, he nearly trips over her when he finds her passed out in an alley. His annoyance over whatever the hell she's doing overrules his better judgment, he kicks her boot and tells her to wake up. She struggles awake and groans when she sees him.

 _Should've known that purple bitch would rat me out._

As she sluggishly gets to her feet, he doesn't move to help her up.

"Jack, the fuck are you doing?"

Given the haze still settled over her brain, it doesn't quite reach her that he doesn't sound angry, he sounds tired. She shakes her head and her mind begins to clear.

"I'm getting away from you."

"What?! Jack, what the _hell_ is going on?"

"I'm happy with you god damn it! I know what happens when I get happy. It's great for a little while, but you'll fuck around, or leave me, or get killed and then I'm stuck there with my fucking heart ripped out. But you can't hurt me if I leave first."

"Oh, but you don't mind doing it to me. After everything we've been through, you can just toss me aside like I'm nothing? I'm the only person who's ever cared about you, and you don't give one shit how I feel? Seriously?"

"Don't tell me how I feel! Of course I care about you, I've never cared about anybody like I do for you!"

"Then how can you do this to me?"

"The same way you did it to me when you turned yourself in."

"That wasn't my fault and you fucking know it!"

"Bullshit! You didn't have to leave. You could have stayed with me but you didn't even try to!"

"Do you think it was easy for me? God damn it Jack, we've been over this! It killed me to lose you, but I had to. If I hadn't turned myself in, they would have hunted us down. At least this way, you got to go free."

She shoves him back, getting angrier by the second.

"Maybe I didn't want to go free! Maybe I wanted to stay with you till the end, you ever think of that?"

"And there you go, not caring what I think, again. Do you have any idea what it would have done to me if you died for me?"

"Don't fucking tell me what I fucking think!"

"Am I wrong?"

She hauls back and slugs him across the jaw. It feels like punching a steel post but pain has never really bothered her before. He calmly looks at her and holds his arms out to the sides.

"You're going to have to do better than that, I'm not going anywhere."

"Why?! Why can't you just let me go?!"

"Because I love you, you fucking psycho!"

And there it is. Just like that, all of her anger and fear evaporates because she knows he means it, and she feels exactly the same way. She looks at him with wide eyes for a moment before stepping forward and burying her face in his neck, their arms go around each other and hold on for dear life. She holds her tears at bay long enough to get three words out.

"Don't let go."

He tightens his grip and replies with the same confidence that carried him through the war.

"Never."


End file.
